Russia claims it has evidence sarin gas was 'home-made'

Russia’s foreign minister has claimed the country has evidence that the sarin
gas used in the August 21 chemical attack in the suburbs of Damascus was
“home made.”

The attack on August 21 killed nearly 1,500 people and sparked a diplomatic crisisPhoto: Reuters

By Roland Oliphant, Moscow

11:15AM BST 26 Sep 2013

Sergei Lavrov said samples taken from the scene of the August 21 attack, which killed nearly 1,500 people and sparked a diplomatic crisis that saw the US face off with Russia over military intervention, matched those of an earlier incident in Aleppo in March.

“Russia, at the request of the Syrian government, investigated [the March 19 incident] and the results of this investigation are broadly available to the Security Council and the public.

"The main conclusion is the type of sarin used in that incident was homemade, and we also have evidence that the type of sarin used on Aug.21st was the same, only of higher concentration,” he said in an interview with the Washington Post.

Mr Lavrov said evidence of “homemade” sarin use was amongst evidence – mostly gleaned from the internet - pointing to rebel guilt for the attacks contained in a dossier that he handed to Secretary of State John Kerry.

That included news reports quoting rebel fighters “who said they were given some unusual rockets and ammunition by some foreign country and they didn’t know how to use them” and what he described as an “open letter by former operatives of the CIA” saying evidence of Assad’s guilt for the attack had been faked, Mr Lavrov said.

Russia has staunchly backed the regime of Bashar al-Assad, and Mr Lavrov reiterated warnings against “playing a double-standard game where some son of a bitch is okay because he is our son of a bitch.”

“If people are motivated by the desire to change the regime, then I am afraid we are in for a very long civil war,” he said.

Mr Lavrov met with Mr Kerry for “constructive” talks on Syria on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.

But rifts have appeared between the US and Russia since the two men hammered out an agreement to push Syria to surrender its chemical weapons stockpiles earlier this month, especially over the possible use of a Chapter Seven resolution should Damascus fail to comply with its commitments.